Review: Lost & Found Pepper Cream Chocolate Crush

Over the past several weeks/months, the online cigar world has been going crazy about the new venture from Tony Bellatto of La Barba Cigars and Robert Caldwell & Jaclyn Sears of Caldwell Cigar Company - Lost & Found. The concept behind Lost & Found is interesting, but it has taken awhile to be told. In February, we posted this Press Release announcing Caldwell/Bellatto/Sears (formerly Impromptu). The Press Release managed to confuse many people, and we received (and posted) this explanation from Robert Caldwell a few weeks later explaining Lost & Found (formerly Impromptu, but sometimes listed as Caldwell/Bellatto/Sears). Confused yet? You weren't the only one!

What I do know is the trio had an ingenious idea - let's scour aging rooms for decadently aged cigars, and let's re-release them with flashy names. Why was it ingenious? Because the online market has been taking these limited edition offerings and snatching them up faster than you can smoke one of them! Released in limited editions to a select few online boutique retailers, Lost & Found have quickly become a favorite cigar amongst the trading rooms and black markets of the online cigar world. Today, I'm reviewing the Pepper Cream Chocolate Crush.

Pepper Cream Chocolate Crush

Size: 6 x 48/54/48

Vitola: Figurado (11/18)

Wrapper:Corojo/Broadleaf Barber Pole

Binder: Corojo

Filler: Honduras Corojo & Pre Embargo Tobacco

Cigars Smoked for this Review: Two

Price Point: $14.00

Cigar Purchased: Samples

Quick Note: For this review I used the CF rating system. You can view it in detail here.

Lost & Found has marketed the Pepper Cream Chocolate Crush as a '2007 Vintage' from Honduras with 3,200 cigars available. The Pepper Cream Chocolate Crush is a barber pole with Corojo and Broadleaf that is a little fat around the middle. The marketing as a '2007 Vintage' along with the figurado shape and the barber pole wrapper along with the pre embargo tobacco has lead many to believe that this is the Camacho Liberty 2007. Despite the rumors, there is no official proof one way or the other.

The wrapper has some veins throughout as you can see pretty evidently in the photos. I wouldn't call this the most gorgeous wrapper in the world. I get tobacco off a sniff of the foot, but little else. Pre light draw has flavors of coffee and sweet tobacco. In an effort to turn this review around fast, I received this cigar in the mail Monday and smoked the first sample on Tuesday with the second on Wednesday. Normally, I'd have all cigars acclimate to my humidor for a few weeks, but I didn't afford that luxury this time.As I light the cigar up, the white pepper is incredibly strong - especially through the nose on the retrohale. I get a nice mix of wood flavors and a chocolate sweetness also. The chocolate sweetness ramps up as I continue with the spice toning down. The draw is perfect with just the right amount of resistance, but an incredible amount of smoke coming off. The burn line is beautiful on this, but the ash did fall off at about the 3/4" mark. As I wrap up the first third, the wood flavors are taking over, but I still get some white pepper spice on the retrohale.The flavors are holding fairly consistent for me in the middle. I'm getting some cedar wood flavors on the front of the tongue with that pepper spice in the back of the throat and through the nose. The ash is holding on pretty strong - about an inch or so at a thump before falling off. This cigar isn't blowing me away, but it is very good. As I stated above, people believe this is a Camacho Liberty 2007. That might be true - I don't know, but I will say I'm surprised at how this has aged if it is. I wouldn't expect this flavor profile for a cigar with that much age. As I enter the middle of the cigar, the spice is enhancing a bit and becoming a stronger red pepper spice.Flavors are mellowing in the finale. Still a faint hint of spice, but getting a bit of earth mixed with tobacco and the cedar along with hints of chocolate. The flavors are not nearly as full as they were in the beginning. I end up pitching this with just under an inch left. A quality experience.

Here is what I will say - this cigar started off with some great flavor and, while the flavors continued and changed, it was best in the beginning. Again, if this was the Camacho Liberty 2007 - which it might be - I wouldn't expect it to have that type of flavor experience. From my experience, aged cigars tend to start off slow and get better as they continue, but this was the exact opposite - the best part was the beginning. Regardless, this is still an enjoyable cigar. It didn't blow me away, but part of that could be the difficulty meeting my expectations based off the hype. Definitely a cigar I'd like to smoke again, though.

FWIW, an 87 isn't a low rating. In fact, if you look at how I score cigars, anything above an 82/83 is a good cigar worth smoking - I just don't give 90+ scores out to every cigar like many people will. Do I think this cigar lived up to the hype some have for it? No. Do I think its a good cigar that I will get more of and smoke again? Yes.

"The marketing as a '2007 Vintage' along with the figurado shape and the barber pole wrapper along with the pre embargo tobacco has lead many to believe that this is the Camacho Liberty 2007" LOL

The only thing keeping this from being a Camacho Liberty '07 is either L&F or Camacho actually saying it is or a damn Camacho band..for sure it is. If its not, its still the exact same blend (wrapper, binder, filler).

Great review Matt...I'm not usually a fan of cigars with "pre-embargo" tobacco in them so I'm curious what it really brought to the experience.

I smoked one of these last night, and Matt is pretty spot on with his review. The only real difference I tasted was a lemon note that kept me interested until the nub. A very good cigar, but not quite great.